Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Sonoma Valley 2007 Zinfandel

Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Sonoma Valley 2007 Zinfandel, $11.99-$29.99, 92 points; this score has me up a tree and out on a limb with this one, so ignore me, but with approximately 12% of my Zins at 92 points, and only the Cakebread (93 points) scoring higher, this would seem to judge me conservative enough, taking into account my avowed bias with this varietal.
I believe Fredric Koeppel (Biggerthanyourhead)
said something like this: it is easier to review a wine that is either very good or very bad, but the middle-of-the-road wines are the tough ones; much paraphrased, but true, and I'm going to go over-board with this Zinfandel, because I liked it so much. If verbosity is not your cup of tea, you might want to settle for this paragraph and this phrase: The 2007 Jack London is a very good Zinfandel at a very good price.

Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Sonoma Valley 2007 Zinfandel, Is not a middle-of-the-road Zinfandel Wine, but within its vibrancy, consistency, and beautifully wild richness, it earned high marks with me. As a standalone wine it is wonderful, and as a food-friendly wine it is a chameleon; though the wine was central to the food, it just seemed whatever I threw at it was great, from Brown Canadian tomatoes, to goats cheese with spinach, Boston-Baked beans, rare fennel-black peppered tenderloin, buttered fresh Italian bread and Chinese cuisine:-) You get the picture.

This Zinfandel had a rim-color of crystal-clear ruby red welling into an almost dense Shiraz, but at the thin of the bottom of my glass, it was strawberry hued. 
Then the Jack London  burst-open with an attack aroma of sharp black cherry, with hints of clove, cinnamon, redwood, and sage.
With flavors of not so subtle cherry and plum in a medium body that is focused; this is power restrained and not over whelming, not as complex as the Tensley Colson Canyon 2008 Syrah, but this Zin reminded me of it. 
The finish is long on black and white pepper with hints of strawberry.
The Jack London is delicious and satisfying.

Index-of-reviewed-wines
Copyright 2011 Dennis Tsiorbas. All rights reserved, Template provided by Blogger